UPDATE: The winner is…Confused!
*~*~*

I’m going to make you work for this one. And yes, this is the second puzzle this week, but you love them, right?

So, solve the puzzle then tell me a story about the picture. Doesn’t have to be long or good. I’ll use a random number generator to pick the winner of a $10 Amazon gift card.

Ready, set, go!

This is just a quick reminder to enter while you can to win some prizes!

1. Sylvie Grayson: False Confession (Contest-5 Winners!) — Win free books!
2. Overwhelmed much? (Contest & Puzzle) — Win an Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Christi A!
*~*~*

Since my mom passed, my daughter has been on a mission to declutter the house to make room for her brood to move in. Up until today, she worked on the kitchen, mom’s bedroom—places that didn’t really impact me. However, today, she decided the focus would turn on me, because, guess what? Me and my big mouth offered up my office room so that every child would have their own bedroom. So, now, I have to consolidate my art room to hold all of my office, too.

It sounded easy when I first proposed it. However, step one was consolidating mom’s upstairs art room with mine—who knew she had so many supplies! And no, I can’t part with a single usable tube of paint or square of art paper. But that was accomplished. Mom’s art room is now my dd’s Cricut and sewing room.

Then she turned to my art room because I am giving up an entire art table, a storage armoire, and a coffee/fridge station to make space for my large desk. Before we could even begin there, we had to declutter the shelving to make room for mom’s and my supplies, together. It took all damn day, but at last the armoire was emptied, the shelves decluttered and refilled, the back table cleared. Only problem will be how to move around the cluttery table in the center of the space to place my desk against the back wall.

I’m so glad she’s the one in charge because I’d still be staring at it all, not knowing where to start… As it is, we’ve used a sh*t-ton of garbage bags already.

So, I used all those words to tell you why I chose my theme for today’s puzzle! Have fun solving it!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, give me one good office/desk/files decluttering tip!

UPDATE: CONTEST CLOSED! All commenters will receive the prize!
*~*~*

I think it’s important to write about what you know. I’ve had a varied background, living in different locations, doing various jobs, and I’ve read many books where the author writes about something they know nothing about. It is disappointing, and draws the reader right out of the story. My best advice is—Do your homework or write what you know.

I was born in southern British Columbia and have lived most of my life here, but when I was eleven, my family moved to the North Peace River area to a place east of Fort St John, BC. We homesteaded, which means we claimed a piece of land and built a small log house on it.

The local school had two rooms, and went to grade 8, so by the time I was thirteen I was doing home schooling, but my older sister and I took turns walking our younger sister the two miles down the dirt road to the bus stop as she was attending the two-room school.

It snowed a lot. One day, I had walked my sister to the bus stop with our dog Captain as company. Captain liked to chase rabbits, and I could always tell because he yipped his way through the woods as he ran.

The road had been ploughed, so the snowbank was a good eight feet high. I got my sister onto the bus and turned to head home, calling for Captain who had disappeared partway down the road chasing rabbits. I could hear him yipping as he drew nearer and nearer, then he barreled out of the trees and up the snowbank. I called him, thinking he would come to me and accompany me on the road home, but he kept going, down the bank and across the road as fast as he could run, into the trees on the other side.

I soon realized why. Over the snowbank behind him came two timber wolves. They paused at the top of the bank, eying me on the road below.

I thought I was dead. So I raised my arms above my head and waved at them, yelling as loudly as I could as I ran toward them. They loped down the bank across the road into the trees after Captain.

What I noticed was Captain running flat out, but the timber wolves loped. They have much longer legs than a regular dog. I didn’t think I would ever see my dog again. I walked the two miles home, and Captain arrived about noon. Totally exhausted, he slept on the floor in front of the fire for the rest of the day.

This was not the first time I had seen wolves, there were lots of them up there, beautiful creatures. They hung around our house because we had animals, a cow and calf, chickens, pigs, geese and dogs. We knew they were there from the howling that could be heard most nights. But it was the closest I had been to them while alone.

I used this encounter in my book, False Confession. The rock band travels north to play for a friend’s wedding, and some of the band members encounter a wolf on their return journey.

False Confession

Did Glory fall for the wrong man, or is someone lying?

Music teacher Glory has given up on men, with good reason. Then she meets the handsome lead guitar player in the band she has just joined.

Alex, body builder and construction foreman, is determinedly single because he’s given up on women. But that’s before he meets the keyboard player who just joined his brother’s rock band. Suddenly his interest is revived and he goes on a crusade to gain Glory’s attention.

But when Alex disappears and the police claim they have a confession giving damning evidence against him, Glory must make a decision. Can she trust the man she’s fallen for, or has she been fooled into believing a lie?

Find False Confession on Amazon & Books2Read

~ * ~

Contest

Comment for a chance to win an ebook copy of False Confession – 5 winners! 

Author Profile

Sylvie Grayson loves to write about suspense, romance and attempted murder, in both contemporary and science fiction/fantasy. She has lived most of her life in British Columbia, Canada in spots ranging from Vancouver Island on the west coast to the North Peace River country and the Kootenays in the beautiful interior. She spent a one-year sojourn in Tokyo Japan.

She has been an English language instructor, a nightclub manager, an autoshop bookkeeper and a lawyer. Now she works part time as the owner of a small company and writes when she finds the time.

She is a wife and mother and still loves to travel, having recently completed a trip to Singapore, Thailand, Viet Nam and Hong Kong. She lives on the coast of the Pacific Ocean with her husband on a small patch of land near the sea that they call home.

Sylvie loves to hear from her readers. You can visit her at her website – www.sylviegrayson.com, find her on Facebook and Twitter, or follow her on BookBub, Goodreads, and Amazon.

Excerpt – False Confession by Sylvie Grayson

“What’s she doing here?” Alex Vecchio glared around the dim upstairs storage room, which was theirs one night a week for band practice. The bar had cases of wine and hard liquor stacked against the far wall. Barrels of beer had been lugged in and placed near the elevator. A single light bulb illuminated the space, the walls dingy with age and the floor boards bare and unpainted.

He spotted his brother’s shaggy head. “Ryan? What’s going on?” His voice was low and fierce. “What’s she doing here?”

Ryan grinned as he pulled his drums from the case. “Hey, Alex. Have you met Glory?” His sandy bangs fell forward as he motioned toward the young woman on the other side of the room. She was bent over a keyboard, unfolding the legs and snapping the braces into place.

Alex lowered his brows and kept his face turned toward his younger brother, his voice a growl. “What’s going on? Why is she here?”

“Glory!” As she straightened, Ryan waved the young woman over. “This is my brother, Alex. He plays lead.”

Alex turned toward her. “Hi,” was all he managed, his body stiff with outrage. Her smile was sunny as she beamed up at him.

“Hi, Alex. Nice to meet you.” She thrust her hand out, and he was forced to give it a reluctant shake. “I didn’t know you were his brother. What a coincidence!” She was still smiling as she turned to Ryan. “Alex lives right next door at the townhouse complex. I’ve seen him a few times when I go off to work in the morning.”

Alex filed that comment away for further scrutiny. She’d been going off to work? In that getup? At five in the morning, her hair was up in a messy pony tail. She wore purple stretch shorts and a little pink tube top. He’d thought she was leaving fresh from the new neighbour’s bed. It was how her hair was kind of all every which way that had put that thought into his head. Well, and the time of day.

He was suddenly irritated by the idea that he’d rushed to judgement without much prompting. Grunting, he slung his guitar case to the floor and went down on one knee to unsnap the buckles.

“So,” Ryan continued blithely, “Glory is going to try out with the band tonight, she’s thinking of joining us.”

Alex’s head snapped up. “Joining us?” he barked, then felt his face flush. That sounded just a touch unfriendly, even to his own ears.

“Yeah,” said Ryan. “We need a keyboard. Pete plays sometimes but his strength is in the strings. This should round us out the way I’ve imagined the band sounding. I thought we’d give it a try tonight and find a few songs to work on that we can all play.” He waved at the other band members who were busy setting up. Pete nodded distractedly at their new member as he pulled his fiddle from the case and began to tune it.

Alex looked over at Glory. She was chatting with Eddie and laughing at something he’d said. That didn’t surprise him. Eddie loved women, all women. No wonder Corrie had left him. Again.

This woman was trouble. As she moved back to her keyboard, Eddie’s dark eyes followed, focused tightly on her ass clad in a snug pair of jeans.

She positioned her bench so she could see the other band members and settled down to play a few scales.

Alex noted the skinny legs on her pants and the high heels of her strappy shoes. Nothing but trouble. He shook his head and walked over to plug in. The air resounded with strings being tuned and keys pounded. He heard the thud of Ryan’s big drum as he snapped it into place in the harness.

His brother thumped a few drum rolls and silence fell. “Guys,” he said, “I thought we’d try a few suggestions from Glory. She’s got a sheet of numbers she likes to play, and we can just follow along to see how we sound.”

Glory nodded and immediately began the intro to one of Adelle’s old songs, “Rolling in the Deep.” Alex groaned silently. Not a bunch of chick songs! He so did not want to…

But as she played and the others joined in, the song began to hang together. They worked their way to the finale and she struck a chord to finish. Then she started the song again. This time she sang. Alex watched and listened, eyes narrowed as she got to the chorus. We could have had it all, she sang, then finished with— You played it, you played it to the beat.

When they stopped, the other guys clapped enthusiastically and he saw the pink flush on her cheeks as she laughed and waved them away.

Alex didn’t clap, but suddenly he felt like it. She was good, he’d give her that. He looked over at Ryan and saw him flash a smile. Little bugger, he was always trying to put something together, something bigger, something better. He just might have done it this time.

These contests are still open!

Enter while you still can!

1. Melanie Jayne: Five Things I’ve Learned This Year (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
2. Diana Cosby: A New Year’s Guide to Achieving Your Goal! — Win a tote and a mug!
3. Can’t wait for… (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!

An Opinion

Bedpans are not for sissies. Just sayin’. ~DD

UPDATE: The winner is…Colleen C!
*~*~*

Outside, the sun’s shining, the temperature is a nippy, slightly breezy 41 degrees. I’m ready for it to get warm enough for me to start working on the pool. It’s an icky chartreuse at the moment!

I’m a little tired after “mom duty” last night, but it’s nothing a strong cup of coffee won’t cure. Then I’m going to tackle bills, do some housecleaning, and maybe, just maybe, write a little today…

Contest

Complete the puzzle then tell me what you can’t wait for…
It’s obvious what I can’t wait for. 🙂
One commenter will win a $5 Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Becky Ward!
*~*~*

By Diana Cosby ©2020

Happy New Year!!!

Dreams are visions of what we can become.  But dreams are also an invitation to doubt, to wonder if you’re good enough, or if you have what it takes.   When I retired from the Navy, I decided to pursue my dream of becoming a published author.  After 100 rejections, I quit counting as I figured I knew how to achieve a rejection.  Then, after 9 ½ years, I finally sold.  The journey taught me many things, which I’d like to share with you.

-Take yourself seriously:  If YOU don’t, no one else will.

-Associate with people who inspire you, and encourage you to achieve your dreams.  Encourage and inspire others as you move toward your dream.

-Set a clear goal:  Once you know exactly what you want, break down steps to achieve it.  If you’re unsure how to start, read biographies of people who have achieved a dream similar to yours.   What steps did they take?  Are there comparable avenues you can pursue?

-Success is a compilation of small steps toward one focused goal.

-Affiliate yourself with professional organizations:  Join accredited groups to educate yourself about the industry you’ve chosen.  In addition to net-working, you will have opportunities to learn from local or on-line sources.

-Self affirmation:  Each morning reaffirm that you are good enough and clarify your goal of the day.  Then, move forward with positive, focused steps.

-Permission to fail:  Success is not a moment, but a journey.  As we grow within our craft, there will be times when we fail at a certain step.  Focus not on the failure, but on the lessons learned.  What worked, what didn’t?  Move forward and make wiser decisions with the knowledge learned.

-The way we act and talk about our goal reflects our commitment to it:  What are you telling yourself?  “I WILL do this!”  Or, are you assuring yourself that one day you’ll really try?

-Give the gift of example:  When you make the choice to follow your dream, you are doing more than commitment to self, but teaching your children an important life lesson — dare to dream, and follow through.  So, be bold.  Believe in yourself.

I hope you’ve found inspiration from my comments.  Remember, there is no right path, but the steps right for you.  Believe in yourself!

*How do you encourage others to go after their dream?

I sincerely wish everyone health, friendship and happiness for the New Year!

Contest

***ONE winner will be drawn from everyone who posts on my guest blog post about, “A New Year’s Guide To Achieving Your Goal!,” on Delilah’s blog between 3 January 2020 – 12 January 2020.  The winner will receive one of Diana’s mugs and a tote.

Diana Cosby, International Best-Selling Author
https://www.dianacosby.com/
The Oath Trilogy
MacGruder Brother Series
Forbidden Series: Forbidden Legacy/Forbidden Knight/Forbidden Vow/Forbidden Alliance/ Forbidden Realm‒14th April 2020